Baba Yaga - First Impressions

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Hi everyone,

Thought I'd start a discussion on the new god, . xMystz posted some comments on the SF Discord channel, so I'll paste that here:

Myst's Discord Comments

I played her yesterday in 1 joust match, DV-8 played her in 1 joust match, and Stuke99 played several games with her in various matches.

For my own experience, I got thoroughly outplayed by the enemy Baba, but my own impressions are very similar to Myst's overall. I think she's got a great kit concept overall and seems fun to play, and the character design, visually, is awesome. Some specifics though:

I don't like Wild Witchcraft's directions being random with random effect...although the concept of unpredictable is an interesting one, it makes it very difficult to strategize, as hitting an enemy becomes partially dependent on that randomness (looking at you, oval shot). Also, my random shots seemed to go in the wrong direction, while I got hit multiple times by a left or right cut from the enemy that wasn't even aiming at me, even from around a corner. That's pretty stupid, honestly.

I have a proposal to help fix that randomness. Depending on the direction you're moving, the ability will cut in that direction. Strafe to the left, and it cuts left. Stand still or move forward and it does an oval. Move backward and it does split (or switch forward and back effects, whatever).
The Baba's Brew, when it works, is also an interesting concept. I like that you can store one as a consumable, but also don't like that it is stored as a consumable. Means you can't have one stored up as you leave base with a Ward and Sentry Ward later in the game.

I didn't have too much of a problem with the hit effect...I realized early in the match that it was delayed, and so had to lead the enemy quite a bit to hit, but I had general success in contact. Stuke was complaining, though, and I do think they could perhaps improve the speed of the projectile a bit, especially since the AOE circle isn't that big.
I really like Blast Off!. A lot. I like that it's got a short leap component to it, but it takes a second to activate...but while it's activating, you get some solid damage mitigation. I think this is a well-designed ability.
The ult is a cool idea, but feels underwhelming right now. Don't know if her hit box increases because of the size of the house, but the shield seems a bit weak, especially since the damage output can be hard to confirm. Those fireballs it lobs are soooo slow, but it's cool that the AOE follows the nearest target.

So DV-8 also tried her in a match following mine...and he ran into some issues.

Apparently the 2 and 4 are known bugs. While I got lucky and didn't experience them, for the entire match, he did. He was at a disadvantage, as he couldn't use his 2 at all, and his ult would only fire the first fireball, after which he couldn't do anything. I couldn't force him to try her again.

Stuke played her in consecutive matches a bit later, and was mostly screaming that he was creeped out at her voice pack. Hope he had nightmares last night XD

Anyway...what are your thoughts and experiences so far?

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Mythical (401)
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I haven't played Baba Yaga myself, I'm not that interested in mages and my mage pool is already "set", but I'll share my opinions from seeing others playing with her, both with and against me.

So far, I saw her being picked in Mid and Solo, with some trolls picking her in Support and going full damage.

Some thoughts so far:
• Despite her passive being good to stack items faster (She can stack , , , and even with her hut's energy), I don't think double stacking will be good on her. Mostly because Warlock's suck, but also because it's going to delay her build a lot. A shame, because I wanted to see a double stacking meta, at least for her.

• Despite the fact that her 3 can be interrupted by stuns and roots (I believe so?), it's a pretty reliable escape.

• Her ult is good for survivability, but terrible for damage. Seriously, tanks can just laugh at her ult and run her down.

• Her 1 seems TOO random to be reliable/viable. It's good for clear, but not so much for damaging enemies. And the various effects (movement speed, protections, slow, silence) cannot be controlled, so you can't, say, use your one to grant haste for your team (Like would) because you can't choose to do so. Plus, the oval pattern sucks.

• I think her 2 is her only viable source of damage, some potions are really good. But again, it's random.

Overall, she has potential, but her randomness definitely makes Baba Yaga a god that's not suited for me.
I'm just happy she's not another .

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Memorable (13)
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So I can't really say a lot about my own experiences as I haven;t played her myself, however I can say that every time I played against her I did not really feel an impact unless her 1 had a silence in there (and I still have no clue how all the effects look).
I also agree with vini that her ult tickles tanks and bruisers.

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Renowned (105)
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ºwº you put my thoughts <3

Additional thoughts:

Your solution to her 1 pretty nice. I know HR will not go back so I suggest just remove the 0 form and you try to hit it as a line ability
Her 2 they said that should be this way so I doubt they will increase the projectile speed but they could increase the base damage (the base damage + scaling) and lower the ingredients damage increase so you will have to worry less about it.
Her house is too loud, they could lower the sounds. I was a Mulan solo and when on the totem I was hearing its footsteps on the mid back camps near pyro.
Ironically I felt that do not ulti is better than ulti with her because the ulti is more a self debuff than a buff on the damage, they DO need to increase fireballs damage.

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Distinguished (72)
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I find Baba a very interesting and fun mage (despite her 2nd ability glitch that I have encountered a couple times). I've been experimenting with a few different build paths to see what she benefits from the most, and while I am still not sure of the best possible build, this has proven to be pretty reliable in most situations:

> > or > > > or .

For relics I usually buy , , or (mostly for memes).

I find that having high mana and high CDR make up for the randomness of her kit. Having lots of mana and low cooldowns means you can spit out abilities like no tomorrow in the event the rng is not in your favor.

As some people have stated, I highly disagree that her ult is useless. With the slow given from , I have been regularly been dealing upwards of 2.5k damage with it.

Also, as I stated before, I buy primarily for jokes, but it does add on to the shield already given by her ult. I find it fun to wreck people in my ult with around half my health bar's worth of shield.

I am interested and excited to see what the community comes up with for her, as I am hoping to play her long term.

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Notable (2)
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Also, not sure if it has been talked about earlier, but there is a known issue currently where if you are hit by 's , and then given energy by your house, you will be stunned. EVEN IF THE ENERGY GOES TO FILLING STACKS INSTEAD OF HEALING.

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Baba Yaga - First Impressions

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